Asana (/ˈɑːsənə/; listen(help·info)Sanskrit: आसनāsana[ˈɑːsənə] 'sitting down', < आस ās 'to sit down'[1]) originally meant a sitting position. In the practice of Yoga it denoted the art of sitting still[2] but later was applied to any posture useful for restoring and maintaining a practitioner's well-being and improving the body's flexibility and vitality, cultivating the ability to remain in seated meditation for extended periods.[3] Such asanas are known in English as "yoga postures" or "yoga positions". Any way that we may sit or stand is an asana while a posture used in yoga is called a yogasana. Modern usage includes lying on the back, standing on the head and a variety of other positions.[3]

In yoga asana refers both to the place in which a practitioner (yogin or yogi if male, yogini if female) sits and the posture in which he or she sits.[4] In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali defines asana as "to be seated in a position that is firm, but relaxed".[5] Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system, known as Raja yoga,[6] but does not reference standing postures or kriyās. Beginners generally find it surprisingly difficult to sit still for the one hour (as practised in meditation methods such as Vipassana).

The word asana in Sanskrit does appear in many contexts denoting a static physical position, although traditional usage is specific to the practice of yoga. Traditional usage defines asana as both singular and plural. In English, plural for asana is defined as asanas. In addition, English usage within the context of yoga practice sometimes specifies yogasana or yoga asana, particularly with regard to the system of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. However, yogasana is also the name of a particular posture that is not specifically associated with the Vinyasa system, and that while "ashtanga" (small 'a') refers to the eight limbs of Yoga delineated below, Ashtanga (capital 'A') refers to the specific system of Yoga developed by Sri Krishnamacharya at the Mysore Palace.

Yoga first originated in India. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes asana as the third of the eight limbs of classical, or Raja Yoga. Asanas are the physical movements of yoga practice and, in combination with pranayama or breathing techniques constitute the style of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga.[8] In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", referring specifically to the seated posture, most basic of all the asanas. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samādhi; transpersonal self-realization.[9]

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali suggests that the only requirement for practicing asanas is that it be "steady and comfortable".[6] The body is held poised with the practitioner experiencing no discomfort. When control of the body is mastered, practitioners are believed to free themselves from the duality of heat/cold, hunger/satiety, joy/grief, which is the first step toward the unattachment that relieves suffering.[10] This non-dualistic perspective comes from the Sankya school of the Himalayan Masters.[11]

Patanjali discusses his specific approach to pranayama in verses 2.49 through 2.51, and devotes verses 2.52 and 2.53 of the Sutra to explaining the benefits of the practice.[14] Patanjali describes pranayama as the control of the enhanced "life force" that is a result of practicing the various breathing techniques, rather than the exercises themselves.[15][16] The entirety of breathing practices includes those classified as pranayama, as well as others called svarodaya, or the "science of breath". It is a vast practice that goes far beyond the limits of pranayama as applied to asana.[17]

Surya Namaskara, or the Salutation of the Sun, which is very commonly practiced in most forms of yoga, originally evolved as a type of worship of Surya, the Vedic solar deity, by concentrating on the Sun for vitalization.

The physical aspect of the practice 'links together' twelve asanas in a dynamically expressed series. A full round of Surya namaskara is considered to be two sets of the twelve asanas, with a change in the second set where the opposing leg is moved first. The asanas included in the sun salutation differ from tradition to tradition.[18]

The emphasis on the physical benefits of yoga, attributed to practice of the asanas, has de-emphasized the other traditional purposes of yoga which are to facilitate the flow of prana (vital energy) and to aid in balancing the koshas (sheaths) of the physical and metaphysical body.

In 1959, Swami Vishnu-devananda published a compilation of 66 basic postures and 136 variations of those postures.[25] In 1975, Sri Dharma Mittra suggested that "there are an infinite number of asanas.",[26] when he first began to catalogue the number of asanas in the Master Yoga Chart of 908 Postures, as an offering of devotion to his guruSwamiKailashananda Maharaj. He eventually compiled a list of 1300 variations, derived from contemporary gurus, yogis, and ancient and contemporary texts.[26] This work is considered one of the primary references for asanas in the field of yoga today.[27] His work is often mentioned in contemporary references for Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Sivananda Yoga, and other classical and contemporary texts.[28]

A group of 84 classic yoga asanas taught by Lord Shiva is mentioned in several classic texts on yoga. Some of these asanas are considered highly important in the yogic canon: texts that do mention the 84 frequently single out the first four as necessary or vital to attain yogic perfection. However, a complete list of Shiva's asanas remains as yet unverified, with only one text attempting a complete corpus.

Commentary on this group of 84 asanas in the classic yoga texts is as follows:

Patanjali's Yoga Sutra (4-2nd century BC) does not mention a single asana by name, merely specifying the characteristics of a good asana.[29] Later yoga texts however, do mention the 84 Classic Asanas and associate them with Shiva.

The Goraksha Samhita (10-11th century CE), or Goraksha Paddhathi, an early hatha yogic text, describes the origin of the 84 classic asanas. Observing that there are as many postures as there are beings, and asserting that there are 8,400,000 [30] species in all, the text states that Lord Shiva fashioned an asana for each 100,000, thus giving 84 in all, although it mentions and describes only two in detail: the siddhasana and the padmasana.[31]

The Hatha Ratnavali (17th century CE)[33] is one of the few texts to attempt a listing of all the 84, although 4 out of its list do not have meaningful translations from the Sanskrit, and 21 are merely mentioned without any description.[34][verification needed] In all, 52 asanas of the Hatha Ratnavali are confirmed and described by the text itself, or other asana corpora.[35]

^Syman, Stefanie (2010). The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. Macmillan. p. 5. ISBN0374236763. But many of those aspects of yoga—the ecstatic, the transcendent, the overtly Hindu, the possibly subversive, and eventually the seemingly bizarre—that you wouldn't see on the White House grounds that day and that you won’t find in most yoga classes persist, right here in America.